Vermeer and the Portrait

A Lady Writing has been claimed a portrait by some scholars because the pose she is takes shows her face so clearly, and because there are distinguishing characteristics that are absent from other Vermeers. Others say the lady is his wife, who was not necessarily having a portrait done, rather modeling for her husband.

Comparing A Lady Writing to other portraits around the same time is an interesting task. For one, artists had their own conventions for portrait painting; Rembrandt, for example, paints portraits with a harsh, yet realistic, eye, showcasing the "individual" (read: ugly, unflattering) features of his subjects. That's what makes a Rembrandt a Rembrandt, though. An example of this is his portrait of his wife, Saskia.

Rembrandt van Rijn 1
Saskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist, probably begun 1634/1635 and completed 1638/1640
Widener Collection
1942.9.711


Rembrandt's portrait of his beloved wife Saskia is typical of Rembrandt's portraits. Not too flattering, but probably captured the essence of Saskia. Her distinctive eyes and nose, her rosy cheeks, her small parted mouth. She looks at the viewer, as does the lady in Vermeer's A Lady Writing. In fact, the facial positions are not so different from one another. Much of the face is visible, distinctive features are focused on, and not a whole lot besides the face is important in the painting. Again, the light is anticipatory of Vermeer's: highlighted on the face, then faded to darkness in the background. This painting even takes that one step further: the veil that Saskia wears may have been an actual possession, like the yellow jacket that Vermeer both painted and owned. 


On the National Gallery website, an unknown author writes, 


"Whether in quickly rendered studies of his own face or in carefully modeled commissioned portraits, Rembrandt captured the emotional and psychological character of his subjects as well as their physical appearance."2


Here, in his portrait of Saskia, that is certainly true, and anticipates the depth in which Vermeer will paint his own portraits, conveying much the same emotional complexity, though with anonymity rather than identification. Mariet Westermann also says the Rembrandt's penetrating portraits and drawings, specifically of children and Saskia, "anticipate the intimacy of Johannes Vermeer."3




1"Saskia Van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist." National Gallery of Art. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=1210>.
2"NGA - Strokes of Genius: Rembrandt's Prints and Drawings - Portriats." National Gallery of Art. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/genius/portraits.shtm>.
3Westermann, Mariet. "4." Rembrandt. London: Phaidon, 2000. 146. Print.